Jim Flaherty the Finance Minister recalls the days when pennies were sufficient to keep him stocked in bubble gum for the baseball diamond, but he shared that Canada’s smallest denomination will soon be vanished.

Mr. Flaherty was asked about the penny during a conference call with Canadian media from Peru, where he had gone to attending a meeting of finance ministers from the Americas and the Caribbean.

He said, “I think it’s inevitable that eventually the smaller coin, the penny, will be eliminated. I’m old enough to remember penny bubble gum, which I chewed way too much of as a kid playing Little League baseball. It’s probably not good for your teeth. I remember pennies being useful things”.

He added that it costs more than a penny to the Royal Canadian Mint penny to make a penny. Canadians had hoarded pennies and because of this the mint has to keep making more.

He shared that countries like New Zealand have managed to eradicate larger coin denominations as well and that it has to end at some point of time.

New Zealand eradicated its one- and two-cent coins in 1989 and five-cent coin in 2006, as per the senior officials from Finance, the Bank of Canada and the Royal Canadian Mint. Senators were really astonished as to how the abolishment of the penny would affect prices for consumers.